RAMONA  An alcohol and cliff-jumping ban, combined with a strict permitting process that requires hikers wishing to visit the Cedar Creek Falls in the Cleveland National Forest to register and pay a fee, has been a great success, officials say.

Instituted in April, the restrictions have ended what had become a serious problem along the trail and at the waterfall beginning in 2008 when at times more than 1,000 people descended the trail, more to party than to experience the outdoors.

Through social media, the falls and swimming hole at the base of the cliffs had become a gathering place for the young — and often stupid — who came with booze and were ill-prepared for the rigorous 2 1/2 mile hike back up.

Their cars would flood a tiny neighborhood in the far eastern section of the San Diego Country Estates near Ramona. People would park in resident’s lawns, leave tons of litter behind, and generally act rude to residents who had moved to the area to avoid exactly all those things.

In July 2011, the U.S. Forest Service said enough was enough and closed the trail to the falls. Then, officials spent almost two years working on a solution. Bjorn Fredrickson, the recreation and land uses program manager for the Palomar District of the forest, designed the permit system.

“It has been a success. We’ve gotten a handle on those natural resource impacts,” he said.

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Hikers must obtain a $6 permit to go to the falls. One permit is good for up to five people. To enforce the system, forest employees are based at the falls on weekends, holidays and sporadically during other times. If someone shows up without a permit they are either turned around or cited for the rules violation.

Until recently ,only 75 permits were issued each day, and since most groups are smaller than five, usually no more than a couple hundred hikers visit the falls daily. The number of permits was increased to 91 on Wednesday, a number that could be reduced if problems are noted, Fredrickson said.

Another new feature are Chip and Christine D’Amico, volunteer trailhead hosts, who live in a 31-foot Winnebago on a pad with a magnificent view located about 75 feet from the trail entrance.

The Arizona couple has been there since mid-October and plan to stay through April when other volunteers will replace them.

“Some day everybody has a permit, some days nobody has them,” said Chip D’Amico.

“People will say we didn’t know, but some can’t lie so you see them turn their heads away,” he said. “We had a group yesterday — three young kids — and the girl just couldn’t take it anymore and said to the others ‘You knew! I told you! It was right on Yelp!”

Christine D’Amico said the best thing to do is to go online ahead of time, print out the permit, and bring it to the trailhead. Permits can be obtained using a smartphone, but it takes times and cell service is spotty in the area, she said.